passover week 2026 - passover fig galette

passover week 2026 - passover fig galette

• 24 Mar 2026

For Passover Week I like to challenge myself and this year my challenge was to make passover puff pastry. Puff pastry needs to be made in a cold kitchen to prevent the butter layers melting and it was 30°C the day I made the pastry. The end result, whilst not really puff pastry, was crunchy and flaky and pretty good but not worthy of 6 letter folds and 6 hours of your time. 

As I don't want to share a recipe with you that isn't perfect, the pastry recipe I'm sharing today is one that I've used for the past 4 or 5 years. It's a shortcrust pastry recipe though so it will be less flaky than the one pictured here. It's adapted from an Aran Goyoaga gluten free pastry recipe and it gives consistently good results. Just to note if figs aren't in season where you live, you can use another fruit like apples, pears, plums or even blood oranges to make the galette.

Here's the recipe for you, which makes a 9 x 13 inch rectangular galette. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C.

Passover fig galette 
Pastry 
150g superfine matzo meal
30g almond meal
2 1/2 tbs tapioca or potato starch
1 tbs caster sugar
pinch sea salt
135g unsalted butter, cut into 1-cm pieces
1 egg 
4-5 tbs iced water

Frangipane
60g unsalted butter
55g caster sugar
50g almond meal
2 tsp grated orange rind
2 tsp potato or tapioca starch
pinch sea salt 
1 egg yolk, lightly whisked

Fig Filling
10-12 figs  
55g sugar
1 tsp grated orange rind
1 egg white

Glaze
2 tbs apricot jam
1 tbs boiling water 

To serve
Whipped cream

Base
Combine the first 5 ingredients in the food processor and pulse to aerate. Add the diced butter and pulse ten times until butter is the size of peas. Whisk together the egg and 2 tbs of ice water. Add it to the dough and pulse until it comes together. Add more ice water if needed. Knead the dough a couple of times and wrap it in plastic wrap forming a flat disc and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Frangipane
Combine all of the ingredients in a small food processor and mix until well blended. Chill until needed.

Assembly
Preheat the oven to 200°C, conventional. Roll the dough into a rectangle, approximately 9 x 13 inches (5-mm thick). Transfer the dough to a baking tray lined with baking paper or a silpat. Spread the frangipane over the prepared pastry, leaving a 3-cm border, then place the tray in the fridge while you slice the figs.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Combine the sugar and orange rind in a small bowl. Arrange the fig slices decoratively over the filling until it is completely covered. Sprinkle most of the sugar over the figs, leaving a little to sprinkle over the edge of the pastry. Gently fold the pastry over the figs, pressing as you go to hold the figs in place. It’s ok if the dough cracks a bit – simply pinch it back together. My pastry was quite soft by this stage so I returned the filled galette to the fridge for 30 minutes until the pastry was firm again.

Brush the pastry border with the beaten egg white then scatter the pastry border with the rest of the sugar. Place the galette on the bottom shelf of the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 190°C, conventional, then move the tray to the centre rack of the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or until the galette is beautifully golden on top and the crust is crispy. Take the tray from the oven and transfer the galette to a cooling rack. 

The crust is very tender when warm, so let it cool and settle before serving. Just before serving, glaze the figs with the warmed apricot jam and serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

The galette is best served the day its baked. Any leftovers need to be stored in the fridge as the pastry softens at room temperature.

The galette received rave reviews from the neighbours and even though the pastry was made from matzo meal they were none the wiser. They thought the galette was delicious and in fact one neighbour declared the galette was one of my best ever bakes, which makes my heart glad. 

I'll keep working on the puff pastry recipe and hopefully I'll be able to share a new and improved recipe with you next year.

See you all tomorrow with another bake for Passover Week 2026.

Bye for now,

Jillian